Michael Cohen

Michael Cohen was the former personal attorney to President Donald Trump. Cohen was convicted by a federal court and sentenced to time in a federal prison. In chapter 7 of your textbook, you read about crimes against moral values and in chapter 8 you read about crimes against the administration of justice. in Chapter 10 your read about defenses to criminal responsibility and in chapter 12 your read about white collar crime. How do these four chapters relate to what happened to Michael Cohen? As an example, you might want to address some of the following issues:  The integrity of the judicial process is of paramount importance to the public, to professionals working within the system, and to individuals subject to its authority. Under common law, obstruction of justice encompassed many acts that impeded or hindered the administration of justice.  Ensuring that witnesses present truthful testimony during judicial proceedings is essential to maintaining the integrity of the justice system. As a result, laws prohibiting perjury were created to deter untruthful testimony. Did Micheal Cohen commit perjury. If so, what did he lie about? Subornation of perjury is the related yet separate offense of willful (in other words, deliberate) and corrupt procurement (seeking) of false testimony from another. Simply put, it occurs when a defendant persuades a witness to lie on his or her behalf. Did that happen and if so by whom?  Witness tampering is the unlawful attempt to influence, delay, or prevent witness testimony or the production of evidence. Witness tampering can take many different forms; bribery, harassment, intimidation, threats, and coercion of witnesses are examples by which witness tampering may occur.   Misprision of felony occurs when someone knows of a felony another person has committed, but fails to report it to authorities. Did Micheal Cohen commit misprision? Could the President of the U.S> be guilty of misprision?  Compounding occurs when an individual accepts money, property, or something of value in exchange for agreeing not to report a crime. Did this occur? By whom? Explain the circumstances.  Under common law, bribery was a misdemeanor offense defined as the agreement to do or refrain from doing an act required of a public official in exchange for money or property – in other words, trading political favors for cash or something else of value or from which the official derived a benefit. Is President Trump guilty of bribery in the Micheal Cohen case?